| This residence was originally built for Baron Van Eetvelde, secretary of state of Leopold II, in charge of the administration of the Congo. It now houses the Maison de Gaz Natural and, in its addition, supposedly the Embassy of Jamaica, although it looks unoccupied today. (See page 2 for the extension.) Surviving records indicate the owner's requirements for this official residence: a large dining room and salon. Henry-Russell Hitchcock describes the masterful interior: "A circle of iron columns, curving up into elliptical arches, supports a low dome of glass across which long leaf-like bands of transparent colour continue the sinuous structural curves below. In a happy floral metaphor the lighting fixtures bend and droop, each electric bulb shaded by a coloured glass bell of over-blown tulip shape" (392). | ||
Recessed ground floor with the first and second floors resting on iron consolesThe facade has bays with arched windows and exposed metalwork. |
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The top story with carved tendrils in stone and elaborate ironwork |
Center: colonnettes with plant-like capitals; mosaic decoration on the facade |
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The recessed entrance with the upper floors resting on metal consoles | ||
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Work Cited:
Henry-Russell Hitchcock. Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. (The Pelican History of Art.) New York: Penguin, 1958 (first published).
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